Bumper sticker on a car that nudged into a crosswalk full of pedestrians... twice.
May 2, 2011
"When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power/the World Will Know Peace."
Bumper sticker on a car that nudged into a crosswalk full of pedestrians... twice.
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103 comments:
Nudged into a cross walk?
Ha ha.
How long before Meadehouse is literally yelling "get off my lawn"?
Oldies are funny.
It was all young people trying to cross the street, just before noon on campus, as classes were changing. The students, of course, had the right of way. The car with the Hendrix sticker was trying to push through anyway. I saw that happen twice. It was quite rude, if not dangerous. The hypocrisy with the bumper sticker interested me.
This is a cropped photograph.
Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational green halo!
I've always wondered about this Hendrix quote, because Hendrix seemed like a guy who really loved power.
Obama hasn't given this driver enough "love." So she wants to mow pedestrians down.
Meanwhile, to those who will believe everything the left hangs out ... the neighbors in Abott's-a-bad-job town ... thought Elvis was living there.
In a hurry to get to a bake sale.
Meadehouse (and all Americans) should vacation in India.
Having a driver is absolutely mandatory, closing your eyes is recommended. It is both freeing and frightening to know you could be run over at any moment, especially because you know there is zero potential legal (or otherwise) remediation.
I don't want to be insane like that. But, let's toughen up America! Who cares about a little impatience on the road? We're badass/exceptional!!! Act like it.
STOP WHINING about everything.
P.S.
Would I be walking on a limb if I asked for Titus to back me up, based on his husband's experience?
Physician, heal thyself.
Well, that's the Lefties.
Compassion and tolerance are for show only, power and money are what really count.
pbAndj said...
Nudged into a cross walk?
Ha ha.
How long before Meadehouse is literally yelling "get off my lawn"?
Oldies are funny.
From someone who would scream bloody murder if it happened to him.
Especially if the car had a Conservative sticker.
Lefties are even funnier.
Not.
@pbAndj So... you're saying pedestrians should get used to cars intimidating them and that I should stop noticing that the car that is doing that has an incongruous bumper sticker? But why? What would be the reason for stopping? That it irritates you is a reason for continuing.
“Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing,”
Edmund Burke
That it irritates you is a reason for continuing.
Ah, finally, the evidence!
I knew you were doing this, Althouse. And, now I have proof.
I am a very aggressive pedestrian. I threw gloves at a car once as it zipped by me on Regent -- I was in the crosswalk. The gloves flew straight up in the air off the windshield, about 15 feet up. It was interesting to see. The driver then applied her brakes. Mission Accomplished.
The best street to cross? Monroe Street in the morning, on my way to Barriques for coffee. All those people speeding down the hill, one person per car, trying to make the light at Spooner. Sorry to interrupt your progress towards work. Although now that Union South is open, I'm less inclined to go to Barriques because (1) the coffee is cheaper at Union South and (2) The coffee is cheaper at Union South.
And who wouldn't look to Jimmi Hendrix for insight for living.
Typical- it is on the LEFT side of the car.
Sometimes you have to nudge into a cross walk.
Sometimes it's totally unjustified, but sometimes, it's really lame that walkers can't try to cooperate with a car It really depends. In front of a store, for example, if the line of walkers has gone on forever, it's OK for the car to safely push through eventually. Reasonable people will let them have a chance.
Now, Althouse's explanation of the story, on a campus full of students in between classes, is probably not a very good example of a time to proceed that way.
However, I do think that's a great example where the students should be nice to the cars and occasionally let them through, rather than just walking with no regard for others. But college campuses are not the place to drive if you have somewhere to be in a hurry.
I've been seeing Althouse posts from a different POV since she (you) told us about the five dollars and her (your) father.
The correct lesson in that situation was to learn that it's not cool when someone in power messes w/ you because they can. You should stand up for yourself.
You should not learn that words have important/literal meanings or blah blah blah whatever it was that Althouse learned.
BTW, I hope I made it clear that the risk of a place like India is strangely freeing. You want to experience true personal responsibility: go to India, nothing can be taken for granted. It's fun. But scary.
We already know that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Turns out that 160 horsepower is too much for some people.
pbAndj thinks rude and dangerous behavior is cute and cosmopolitan.
Perhaps the driver is a Cass Sunstein fan. Those pedestrians don't need to be herded, exactly--just nudged.
Would that the offending vehicle had been a Prius (or better yet a Leaf). Oh, delicious should be such irony.
One of those 'Yoda-fleet vehicles whipped past me at 75 in a 55 today, middle-finger salute upraised, cursing loud enough for me to hear the, "Fuck You!!" in the backwash.
I guess it was the found "W" sticker, or maybe the "Enough!"
pbAndj thinks rude and dangerous behavior is cute and cosmopolitan.
The word you're looking for is "edgy".
It's Kloppenburg's car.
Really.
Doesn't Hoosier drive a Focus? Hmmm
@David, It's got a trunk full of ballots?
" From someone who would scream bloody murder if it happened to him.
Especially if the car had a Conservative sticker."
What does a "Conservative sticker" look like?
Conservative people don't fuck up their cars with bumper stickers.
" You want to experience true personal responsibility: go to India, nothing can be taken for granted. It's fun. But scary."
You don't need to go that far. Give Mexico a go. While on vacation there, I gave my son some pesos to buy chips. He opened the bag, and inside was a toy horse. "Dad! - the toy isn't in a bag"
Mexican kids ride bare back.
I love India, but here is how pbAndJ wants Americans to spice up our lives.
Now, we could be more like the Japanese. Pedestrians, children playing, and cars often share the narrow neighborhood roads. Everybody nods, or does a "dozo" hand to say "after you". Nudging into a cross walk would just be embarrassing.
The hypocrisy with the bumper sticker interested me.
Its not hypocrisy. Liberals often adopt "hopey changey" things. Its an Indulgence for being an ass the rest of their lives.
"Today I mowed down three pedestrians while hurrying to Starbucks, but I believe in World Peace, so I must be a good guy"
In LA, I drove behind a BMW 5-Series with a bumper sticker that read "Live Simply that Others May Simply Live". I still laugh about that one.
So... you're saying pedestrians should get used to cars intimidating them
How about we all just share the world? We all have to live in it, pedestrians and motorists alike.
A little bit of peaceful cooperation ON BOTH SIDES goes a long way.
Visualize whirled peas.
Many moons ago (1985), before my first visit to Los Angeles, I was told that cars would stop for me when I crossed the street (as a pedestrian), but I was still shocked the first time it happened.
Do they still do that out in L.A.?
WV: meyingen
"Give Mexico a go. While on vacation there, I gave my son some pesos to buy chips. He opened the bag, and inside was a toy horse. "Dad! - the toy isn't in a bag"
Mexican kids ride bare back."
Turing test fail.
In India, everyone has the right of way.
Just confirmed that, as fact, with an ex-pat from Kiralin - who now waits for the crosswalk light after getting a muni-ticket from a dyke cop. (Imagine inserted graphic of circular head movement)
It used to be the rule in LA to stop for pedestrians but that was back when drivers spoke English.
One way to deal with rude drivers and crosswalks is to rap on, or kick the side of the car and scream. Usually they stop.
And who wouldn't look to Jimmi Hendrix for insight for living.
Hendrix was paraphrasing William Gladstone:
"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace."
Watch out for those lovey-dovey types. Especially if you're on a bike.
pbj: You are the whiner in this thread.
sarge here ifn this was madison an it even happnd yar can bet them students wauz crossin on a dont walk
They also need a COEXIST bumper sticker to go with that one.
Off Topic. Our neighbors to the north finally got it.
It is the first time in Canadian history that the Liberal party did not finish either first or second.
Would this be considered a Random Act of Kindness or a Senseless Act of Beauty?
Mean People Who Won't Get Out Of My Way Suck.
Every person I've known who thought and talked like this (and I've known several) was mentally unbalanced and prone to outbreaks of violence. Every single one.
Bumper stickers about "peace" are a sign of incandescent rage.
(Another hypocrisy: whither fluorescents?)
All we need is love ... and a police force ... and an army ... and maybe a job.
Old news -- drivers of cars with bumper stickers are more aggressive, and the content of the bumper stickers doesn't matter:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/15/ST2008061502199.html
Hmmmm....
So Bumper sticker = Asshole, eh?
Lesson learned!
They're going after our water & fracking and I'm not supposed to "whine?"
Whining is going to be the least of it.
Via Instapundit.
When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power/the World Will Know Peace.
Hendrix, in the 1960s?
Naaa, I thought it was Huey Lewis, in the 1980s.
Even with love, it's always about power with some people.
Because if you love me, I'll have power, and the world will have peace cuz everyone will do what I want.
The "power of love" often works out to be an abusive relationship.
MisterBuddwing, it's still true about LA, for the most part. Cars will stop for pedestrians no matter where they try to cross.
Probably because pedestrians are so rare the drivers are amazed to see one in the wild, rather than just on television.
Maybe this person may just be having a bad day. It never happens to you?
I learned the meaning of the term "California stop" almost 60 years ago on my first day in the State of California.
Never. Almost never.
My last bad day was in 1987.
And I blame you for that. ;)
Madison is a college town. Maybe the car is being driven by a grad-student from New Delhi. The bumper sticker could have already been on the car when he got it second-hand.
Plus, he is confused by the steering wheel being on the wrong side and all.
If he wasn't constantly beeping the horn, you can rule-out all of the above.
Is that tobacco spittle on the bumper?
Did the driver just miss a UWM baseball player?
Two bumper stickers still make me laugh after all these years:
Visualize Whirled Peas
Jesus is coming: Look Busy.
Nice people are not very nice.
That's a good general rule.
I've always found that the people you can count on are ones with reputations for the opposite.
Nice people give them the reputations.
Ann (and Meade, too),
What an emotional couple of months for you two...
The chalk pictures on the Hegg statue, someone using the term "tea-bagger" in your presence, tape residue, children chanting "the children united will never be defeated", the Hulsey rebuffing, and the drumming, the constant drumming.
As if all of this wasn't enough; you have to see this "nudging into the crosswalk" by someone who appears to support World Peace.
I am so sorry.
I drive down Gorham/Johnson each day to get to work. People walk during "don't walks", cross in random sections of the street, change lanes unexpectedly on a bike or scooter. When I'm on call and have to drive through campus on a snowy night at bar time, it feels like an arcade game trying to dodge darting students and other late-night party-goers. Badger game at bar-time? Crazy.
Here's my point, drivers in Madison tolerate this sort of chaos, making sure to not injure a pedestrian; in return, they can edge into a crosswalk. Period.
Sometimes I think you and I don't really live in the same city.
By the way, how is that sticky note in grocery store thing going? (I know that was also very upsetting for you).
Luke, why are you projection your emotional breakdown onto Ann and Meade? Don't cry, its a sincere question.
Why are you such a whiney little bitch?
@MadisonMan
My favorite bumper sticker in Madison is "Bumperstickers are not the answer".
I'm totally cool with the car/pedestrian relationship in Madison.
Sometimes I'm the car and sometimes I'm the pedestrian.
I can't remember, do you live in Madison, Fen?
When the power of mass overcomes the power of pedestrians, you will then know the peace of getting through the intersection.
Sometimes I think you and I don't really live in the same city.
You and Ann and I all live in the same town. Funny that what we see depends a lot in what we're looking for.
Pb&J: Come to my neck of the woods and try walking across a cross walk in traffic. The rules are in your favor but the rules are ignored, they believe the crosswalk rule, the very idea of yielding to pedestrians is candyass. Around here sailboats are expected to yield to speedboats, walkers to horseback riders, bicycles to cars. Power trumps.
In the instant case of white bread Madison Wisconsin: the place is crammed packed with sanctimonious hippie sorts and academics, each more righteous than the next. It is not the kind of place where auto rudeness should exist much less prevail.
Oh, and your India experience is irrelevant but thanks for letting us know you have enjoyed the sub continent. Hopefully you observed yogis.
I have noticed a similar phenomenon here in Florida. The margin in a parking lot at the entrance of a supermarket or Home Depot is usually a place where pedestrians have the right of way, and cars pass through slowly. The exceptions have heavily tinted windshields and seem to be driven to intimidate pedestrians. Just the other day I had a Chrysler 300 give me the automotive equivalent of a brush-back pitch.
" the automotive equivalent of a brush-back pitch."
A good reason to walk with your keys in hand.
Just sayin'.
"Here's my point, drivers in Madison tolerate this sort of chaos, making sure to not injure a pedestrian; in return, they can edge into a crosswalk. Period."
And my point is that if you do it with an incongruous bumper sticker, I will make fun of you on my blog, which is my perspective on the way things look from/in Madison, Wisconsin. If it were not for the sanctimony about how good people here think they are, it wouldn't be interesting, and I wouldn't blog it. I blog interestingness, from my point of view.
AA-
Maybe if the person in the car was giving the crowd the finger, or inching their way towards someone with a walker, or getting too close to someone visually impaired; then, maybe you would have an "interesting" point about hypocrisy.
"Nudging into the crosswalk" with a bunch of young people in broad daylight.
Silly.
"If it were not for the sanctimony about how good people here think they are, it wouldn't be interesting..."
What does this mean?
Maybe you hang out with a bunch of assholes?
"Maybe if the person in the car was giving the crowd the finger, or inching their way towards someone with a walker, or getting too close to someone visually impaired; then, maybe you would have an "interesting" point about hypocrisy."
The other humorously interesting thing about that driver was that his left-turn signal never went off, even when he went straight, through one intersection, and then turned right, at the next.
Btw, Lukedog, don't you agree that the bullet in bin Laden's head is a perfect example of the power of love overcoming the love of power?
Peace.
"When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power/the World Will Know Peace."
This may be true. What's missing is that right now, there are those who'll answer love with violence. And they need to be defended against.
"As the head-chopping insurgents in Iraq, the suicide bombers in Saudi Arabia and the murderers of Mr. Hariri have all signaled: The old order in this part of the world will not go quietly into this good night. You put a flower in the barrel of their gun and they’ll blow your hand and your head right off."
Thomas Friedman, NYTimes, via a quote out of Michael Totten's "The Road to Fatima Gate". Say what you will about Friedman, but he's got that part right.
""If it were not for the sanctimony about how good people here think they are, it wouldn't be interesting..."
What does this mean? "
It's clearly ironic. Are you really that deranged with hatred that you refuse to grant that point?
That's pretty funny.
If they don't stop at a crosswalk with people trying to cross the street in NH they are guaranteed a ticket. The cops really enforce that one. If someone tries to nudge the pedestrians they will get hit big for that.
"Here's my point, drivers in Madison tolerate this sort of chaos, making sure to not injure a pedestrian; in return, they can edge into a crosswalk."
Is tu quoque the best you have to offer?
I've always wondered about this Hendrix quote, because Hendrix seemed like a guy who really loved power.
If you ever get the chance, listen to the Hendrix BBC recordings. The chit-chat and joking between songs shows a very warm, thoughtful and silly guy. He also sounds very sober.
Drugs and alcohol brought out his dark side. No excuse, but there ya go.
"Btw, Lukedog, don't you agree that the bullet in bin Laden's head is a perfect example of the power of love overcoming the love of power?"
Nope
Insipid, unsurprisingly. Because it's a bumpersticker.
Inside every liberal is a tyrant waiting to burst forth
When I was a a child my uncle frequently gave me a ride to school. We had to navigate past a nearby community college. I still remember him more than nudging his way into cross walks and yelling out the window, "You sons of a bitches get out of my way!" He'd bounce a few every now and then too. Not too hard mind you but a real attention getter. America was a better land in those days. Great memories.
Perhaps the bumper sticker should say, "Tenure means never having to say you're sorry."
If you can condense any political thought into something that can fit on a bumper sticker and be happy with it, you've got a problem. That goes for religious bumper stickers as well. It's like talking heads on TV: if all they can say are sound bites, they're more likely to be all about the conflict and not about rational discussion.
I got tired of being harassed as a pedestrian in a college town full of punks who felt a little too brave in their cars. I made it a habit to casually toss a fist-sized rock up and down in one hand whenever I crossed an intersection. Talk about leveling the playing field! I never heard another peep. I highly recommend it. Just don't ever throw it at anybody, or course.
I got tired of being harassed as a pedestrian in a college town full of punks who felt a little too brave in their cars. I made it a habit to casually toss a fist-sized rock up and down in one hand whenever I crossed an intersection. Talk about leveling the playing field! I never heard another peep. I highly recommend it. Just don't ever throw it at anybody, of course.
Nudging into a crosswalk? Welcome to making a turn in Manhattan
Meh. Probably the husband put it there to encourage his insensitive selfish wife to think more about others while driving.
Situation calls for technology. A friend who lives near a high school with rude student street-crossers "liberated" an airhorn from a switching diesel locomotive. Mounted it on his 3-wheel Harley bike with a small air tank and compressor. Next time the students kept filling the crosswalk when he got the green, he leaned on the horn button. Students scattered like pigeons near firecrackers. Heh.
Absolute airhorn corrupts absolutely, I suppose.
It's pretty funny that Jimi Hendrix would lecture us about the love of power in light of the fact that he played in front of a wall of 100 watt Marshall double stacks.
The proper response to such aggression, of course.
Don't mess with Granny!
If Jimi Hendrix was still alive and if he was surfing the internet, would he be using a purple Hayes?
If Jimi Hendrix were still alive, and if he was surfing the internet, would he be using a purple Hayes modem?
I don't mind Hendrix as a singer, but I do tend to find it a bit tough to take advice about how one should live seriously when it comes from someone who died at age 27 on a bunch of drugs.
MIT is bisected by Massachusetts Avenue, one of the main drags between Cambridge and Boston. There is a crosswalk right in the middle of campus right in front of the main entrance at 77 Mass. Ave. It's wider than the length of a car. Very busy when classes changes. Be there at that time and you might wait a bit for the students to cross. There's obviously a light.
There were issues back in ~1972 with impatient motorists inching across while students were walking across. Motorists over a period of a few weeks got bolder. Students got more pissed off.
One fine spring morning a motorist tried inching through the crowd. Someone snapped. About 20 students started jumping up and down on the hood, trunk, etc. of the car. Quite a bit of damage was done to the car.
There was media coverage. Then there was a cop at that crosswalk. No more inching across.
I should note that the motorists were inching across against the light. The light is there solely for the crosswalk - there is no intersecting street there.
As someone who drives for a living, in a college town (one of the biggest) the frustration of trying to navigate through college students is - well - trying. One game is step directly in front of cars, or buses, or any other moving vehicle as close as possible. The aim apparently is to make the driver slam on the brakes at the last possible moment to avoid hitting them. Nudging? Yep, done it. Hendrix sticker? Not on your life.
Students stepping in front of cars at the last minute reminded me of a certain cop in Houston. A lot of businesses in Houston rent a cop for help in getting parking lots emptied into busy streets at 5 pm. One cop at Richmond and West Belt seemed to take pleasure at walking out in front of cars moving at the speed limit. He gave me a scowl and pointed a finger at me once when I had to squeal to a stop to avoid hitting him. I have no idea on the legal issues of a cop hired in his off time, stopping traffic on a busy road, so someone can pull out of a parking lot. It may be legal, but he enjoyed the stop way too much.
It is insane to nudge a pedestrian with a car, what if the nudger knocks the pedestrian off balance and the pedestrian falls (maybe even hitting their head on the pavement)? Even if the pedestrian does not fall down, there is a good chance that he will be POed and retaliate.
In Norway, if a pedestrian steps onto the road, the driver has to stop, no ifs, ands, or buts (even if the road is a high speed road).
I agree with what I take Ann's message to be, that incongruity in the meta-messaging we provide is fodder for ridicule.
I try to make sure that doesn't happen, which is why I have one of those magnetic yellow "Support" ribbons stuck to my car, which reads "Support the Magnetic Ribbon Industry".
haha nice one right off the edge, a little bit push and we are right there, overcoming love of power because love is pouring right now, thanks to the philanthropist! God Bless!
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